Somdev Devvarman lets go junk food, hires new coach to regain identity

PUNE: He refuses to mourn poor results of the year going by, instead Somdev Devvarman has carefully planned a way "to get back his identity on the tennis courts" by hiring a new coach, cutting down on junk food and putting more hours on honing his serve.
Disappointment was writ large when he came out of the Centre Court following a defeat against compatriot N Vijay Sunder Prashanth in the second round of the ATP Challenger here.

And why not, given that he spends at least five hours on training everyday when he is not playing and close to three hours during tournaments. Yet 2015 is the second successive year, which he would like to forget after slipping from 136 to 181 in the world rankings.

In 19 ATP Challenger level tournaments, he fell in the first round itself 10 times, on five occasions, he lost the second round and won two titles (Delhi and Winnetka) apart from making two quarterfinals.

He looks fitter than ever and leaner too. Ask him about it and without any qualms he reminds you about his age.

"Fitness is one of my strengths and I believe in working on my strengths. I am getting older. I have hit 30 this year. I have definitely cut down on junk food and some of the tastiest Indian foods (laughs). I am little bit conscious about my diet," Somdev told PTI.

When countered that he was seen eating noodles after his first round match, Somdev said, "One or two times in a while. I am not tempted to eat much. I generally eat simple food. But I don't eat butter chicken. I am a vegetarian. Generally I have improved a lot."

"I am vegetarian so lack of protein is a problem. So just being very diligent on eating at right times, having my protein shakes at the right time and eat vegetarian food that has protein like beans and soya. I have recently found out that I have a few allergies that I need to deal with. That was hurting me whole year and I did not know about that. It's just getting healthy again."

After training with Scott McCain for many years, Somdev has now hired a new coach, his close friend from Greece Theodoros Angelinos. It's been a month that they have joined forces to get him back to top-100.